Pop of color in my drawers!

I’ve got to admit, I’m in love with situations where you can throw in a pop of color. For example, I love wearing a white blouse, black skirt, and bright red heels. It just makes you feel wonderful, for some reason. This applies to more than just clothes though – I also love when it’s incorporated into a home. Whether it’s the bright, patterned pillows on a beige couch, or a funky lamp against cream walls, I think a pop of excitement can bring a lot! My next project perfectly embodies this obsession!

I’ve always admired posts I’ve seen where people line the drawers of their dressers with a fun paper; it makes you smile when you open the drawers to see this pop of print and color! This is one project I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, once I found the right paper and the right time.

Instead of a dresser, I decided to line the drawers of our nightstands. This is what our nightstands look like:



They’re very pretty black carved nightstands, and I really love them. But you open the drawers, and it’s just so plain!



So, time to Mod Podge some paper on them to give them a pop!

In a normal situation, I would’ve removed the drawers from the nightstand, and taken them to an open area to give myself room to craft. However, with these nightstands, the drawers wouldn’t come out. The problem is what you see below: a power strip in the drawer. While it’s incredibly handy, those cords are attached to the back of the nightstand, so without some serious surgery, these drawers weren’t going to budge.



I started prepping the drawers by wiping them down with a damp washcloth. We don’t want to Mod Podge on an unclean surface!

Then I grabbed my paper. I found this paper at a little paper store just down the street from my place, and I instantly knew this was the paper for my drawers! The bright turquoise with small wavy black lines works perfectly with the black of the nightstands.



I started by cutting my paper to be the length and width of my drawers. Luckily this paper was big enough to fit the entire area as one piece, instead of smaller papers where you have to piece them together and you get a seam.



I then grabbed my matte Mod Podge, a foam brush, and a roller.



I brushed the Mod Podge down directly onto the entire surface of the drawer, trying to work quickly so it didn't start to dry.



Then I very carefully put the paper down, starting on one edge and slowly rolling the rest of it down. It was relatively difficult because of the large size of the paper, but the roller definitely helped! Once I had done that, I moved onto all the other drawers (2 nightstands x 2 drawers each = 4 total). I let them dry extra long (2 hours?) because it was very humid that day, and then put the top coat on. Although I did have some bubbling - you always do! - I fixed that by filling the drawers with books when the paper was dry to the touch but still slightly moist/pliable from the glue. I let them sit overnight with the books on top, and they turned out perfectly!



These are by far my new favorite drawers!